CAIR sues "Muslim Mafia" authors

By GLENN THRUSH

11/02/2009 12:25 PM EST

The Council on American-Islamic Relations has sued a father-and-son team for infiltrating the group's Washington DC operation -- to gather info for a just-published opus with the guess-which-side-they're-on title, "Muslim Mafia," POLITICO's Josh Gerstein reports.

Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly has ordered the author, P. David Gaubatz, and his son, Chris Gaubatz, to appear personally in federal court in Washington this morning to respond to CAIR's demand for a restraining order preventing the pair from disclosing or distributing thousands of documents Chris took or copied while working under a pseudonym as an intern in CAIR's Washington office.

The "Muslim Mafia" book has drawn attention on Capitol Hill because Rep. Sue Myrick (R-N.C.) penned a foreword for the volume. In addition, it featured in a press conference earlier this month where several conservative members of Congress alleged that CAIR was attempting to plant spies on Capitol Hill.

""If an organization that is connected to or supports terrorists is running influence operations or planting spies in key national security-related congressional offices, I think this needs to be made known," Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.) said.

CAIR said its efforts to encourage Muslims to get internships on the Hill was innocuous and a routine activity for advocacy groups.